In 1831, Samuel Foster and his family built a log house near the rapids of the Kalamazoo River at what is now downtown Otsego. Soon others interested in utilizing the power afforded by the river set up sawmills and grain mills for newly arriving settlers, and the beginnings of a town quickly took shape. In the 1900s, Otsego became synonymous with the paper industry, and for a while, seven paper mills were in operation at the same time. Plainwell, originally called Plainfield and the Junction, situated itself at the crossroads of the old plank roads that led to Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and...